Afro-Abkhazians
Encyclopedia
Abkhazians of African descent are a small group in Abkhazia
of African descent who used to live mainly in the Abkhazian settlement Adzyubzha
at the mouth of the Kodori River
and the surrounding villages of Abkhazia
(Chlou, Pokvesh, Agdarra, Merkulov, etc.) on the eastern coast of the Black Sea
.
) is likely to have happened in the 17th century. According to one version, a few hundred slaves were bought and brought by Shervashidze
princes (Chachba) to work on the citrus
plantations. This case was a unique, and apparently not entirely successful, case of mass import of Africans to the Black Sea
coast.
According to another theory, Abkhazians of African descent are the descendants of the Colchians, the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Colchis
in present-day western Georgia
. However, the question of the likelihood of at least some continuity between the ancient Colchians and current Abkhazians of African descent is not known, because there is no available, reliable evidence of the existence of a African population in historic Kolkhi. They may also derive from the Egyptian Copts
or Ethiopian Jews
. Abkhazian writer Dmitry Gulia in the book "History of Abkhazia" compared the place names of Abkhazia and the corresponding names in Ethiopia and claimed that some of the geographical names are identical: Bagadi – Bagadi, Gunma – Gunma, Tabakur – Dabakur, etc.
In 1927, the Russian
writer Maxim Gorky
, together with the Abkhaz writer Samson Chanba
visited the village of Adzyubzhu and met elderly Africans there. Based on his visit and comparison of his observations with the published data, he felt that the Ethiopian version of the origin of the Abkhazians of African descent is true.
to Nikita Khrushchev
, an Ottoman ship wrecked near the Abkhazian coast during a storm, with slaves who were brought up for sale, and the current Abkhazians of African descent are the descendants of survivors from the ship, who founded the colony in Abkhazia. This legend, however, does not explain how such a ship could have entered the waters of the Black Sea
, which is so far from major shipping lanes of the slave trade of that time.
Another legend tells about the dealings of Narts with certain "black faced people" from the Horn of Africa
. The legendary Narts are said to have come back to the Caucasus from a long African campaign with hundreds of African escorts, who remained in Abkhazia.
In a third legend, the appearance of Abkhazians of African descent is involved with Peter the Great: he imported many black Africans to Russia, and it is said that those who were unable to acclimate to the northern capital of Russia, Saint Petersburg
, were then generously given to the Abkhazian princes. According to the history candidate Igor Burtsev, there could have been a few dozen such "gifts of Peter" to Abkhazian princes.
Perhaps more than one of the several scientific hypotheses and legends has some truth: many of them are not inherently exclusive, but complementary.
, Abkhazians of African descent are called შავი კაცი šavi ḳaci ("black man") or შავი ხალხი šavi xalxi ("black people"). The said memorandum of Ivan Isakov to Khrushchev on the Abkhazians of African descent says, among other things, that the governor of the Caucasus Hilarion Vorontsov-Dashkov, imitating Peter the Great, had his personal convoy of Afro-Adzyubzhi, who accompanied him in Chokha
. Prince Alexander of Oldenburg, founder of Gagra
, kept in his yard a few representatives from each of the peoples of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus
, including the local blacks.
It is known that already in the 19th century, Abkhazians of African descent spoke only in Abkhazian and considered themselves Abkhaz people
. Their total number is estimated by different observers in the range of "several families" to "several villages". They are not religiously homogeneous, either. Apparently in Abkhazia there are or have been in the recent past black Christians, black Muslims, and black Jews.
Abkhazians of African descent engaged in growing citrus, grapes, and corn, working in the coal mines of Tkvarchreli and enterprises of Sukhumi
, working in knitting factories, etc. Like many Abkhazian people, Abkhazians of African descent today speak in Russian
. Most today are of mixed race, as the Abkhazians of African descent have intermarried with other local ethnic groups. Many left Kodor settled in other parts of Abkhazia and in neighboring Georgia and Russia, as well as other nearby countries.
Abkhazians of African descent presence has also been noted among Abkhaz communities in Turkey
.
Abkhazia
Abkhazia is a disputed political entity on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus.Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny...
of African descent who used to live mainly in the Abkhazian settlement Adzyubzha
Adzyubzha
Adzyubzha , ) is a rural settlement in the Ochamchira District of Abkhazia, Georgia’s breakaway republic.Situated at the mouth of Kodori River, the settlement was known as the most important centre of the Afro-Abkhazian population who lived in Adzyubzha and its vicinity. Adzyubzha had a...
at the mouth of the Kodori River
Kodori River
The Kodori, also known as Kodor, is one of the two largest rivers of Abkhazia, along with the Bzyb. It is formed by the joining of the rivers Sak'en and Gwandra. The Kodori is first among Abkhazia's rivers with respect to average annual discharge and drainage basin area , and second after the...
and the surrounding villages of Abkhazia
Abkhazia
Abkhazia is a disputed political entity on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus.Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny...
(Chlou, Pokvesh, Agdarra, Merkulov, etc.) on the eastern coast of the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
.
Hypotheses
The ethnic origin of the Abkhazians of African descent — and how Africans arrived in Abkhazia — is still a matter of dispute among experts. Historians agree that the settlement of Africans in a number of villages in the village of Adzyubzhi in Abkhazia (then part of the Ottoman EmpireOttoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
) is likely to have happened in the 17th century. According to one version, a few hundred slaves were bought and brought by Shervashidze
Shervashidze
Shervashidze was a noble family in Abkhazia which, according to later sources, can be traced at least as far back as the twelfth century.Although this is quite clearly a Georgian form , the family is said to have derived from the Shirvanshahs, a dynasty of Shirvan in what is now Azerbaijan...
princes (Chachba) to work on the citrus
Citrus
Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China...
plantations. This case was a unique, and apparently not entirely successful, case of mass import of Africans to the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
coast.
According to another theory, Abkhazians of African descent are the descendants of the Colchians, the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Colchis
Colchis
In ancient geography, Colchis or Kolkhis was an ancient Georgian state kingdom and region in Western Georgia, which played an important role in the ethnic and cultural formation of the Georgian nation.The Kingdom of Colchis contributed significantly to the development of medieval Georgian...
in present-day western Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
. However, the question of the likelihood of at least some continuity between the ancient Colchians and current Abkhazians of African descent is not known, because there is no available, reliable evidence of the existence of a African population in historic Kolkhi. They may also derive from the Egyptian Copts
Copt
The Copts are the native Egyptian Christians , a major ethnoreligious group in Egypt....
or Ethiopian Jews
Beta Israel
Beta Israel Israel, Ge'ez: ቤተ እስራኤል - Bēta 'Isrā'ēl, modern Bēte 'Isrā'ēl, EAE: "Betä Ǝsraʾel", "Community of Israel" also known as Ethiopian Jews , are the names of Jewish communities which lived in the area of Aksumite and Ethiopian Empires , nowadays divided between Amhara and Tigray...
. Abkhazian writer Dmitry Gulia in the book "History of Abkhazia" compared the place names of Abkhazia and the corresponding names in Ethiopia and claimed that some of the geographical names are identical: Bagadi – Bagadi, Gunma – Gunma, Tabakur – Dabakur, etc.
In 1927, the Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
writer Maxim Gorky
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
, together with the Abkhaz writer Samson Chanba
Samson Chanba
Samson Kuagu-ipa Chanba was a pioneering writer and statesman from Abkhazia killed in Joseph Stalin's Great Purge.Chanba was born on 18 June 1886 in the village of Atara. He initially became a teacher...
visited the village of Adzyubzhu and met elderly Africans there. Based on his visit and comparison of his observations with the published data, he felt that the Ethiopian version of the origin of the Abkhazians of African descent is true.
Legends
There are a number of folk legends that might be based partly on true events. According to one of them, which is mentioned in the memorandum of Ivan IsakovIvan Isakov
Hovhannes Stepani Isakov -Early life:Ivan Isakov was born Hovhannes Ter-Isahakyan in the family of an Armenian railway worker in the village of Hadjikend in the Kars Oblast, then a part of the Russian Empire...
to Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, an Ottoman ship wrecked near the Abkhazian coast during a storm, with slaves who were brought up for sale, and the current Abkhazians of African descent are the descendants of survivors from the ship, who founded the colony in Abkhazia. This legend, however, does not explain how such a ship could have entered the waters of the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, which is so far from major shipping lanes of the slave trade of that time.
Another legend tells about the dealings of Narts with certain "black faced people" from the Horn of Africa
Horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in East Africa that juts hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. It is the easternmost projection of the African continent...
. The legendary Narts are said to have come back to the Caucasus from a long African campaign with hundreds of African escorts, who remained in Abkhazia.
In a third legend, the appearance of Abkhazians of African descent is involved with Peter the Great: he imported many black Africans to Russia, and it is said that those who were unable to acclimate to the northern capital of Russia, Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, were then generously given to the Abkhazian princes. According to the history candidate Igor Burtsev, there could have been a few dozen such "gifts of Peter" to Abkhazian princes.
Perhaps more than one of the several scientific hypotheses and legends has some truth: many of them are not inherently exclusive, but complementary.
History and present
In the Georgian languageGeorgian language
Georgian is the native language of the Georgians and the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.Georgian is the primary language of about 4 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad...
, Abkhazians of African descent are called შავი კაცი šavi ḳaci ("black man") or შავი ხალხი šavi xalxi ("black people"). The said memorandum of Ivan Isakov to Khrushchev on the Abkhazians of African descent says, among other things, that the governor of the Caucasus Hilarion Vorontsov-Dashkov, imitating Peter the Great, had his personal convoy of Afro-Adzyubzhi, who accompanied him in Chokha
Chokha
A chokha is part of the traditional male dress of the peoples of the Caucasus. It has been in wide use among Georgians from the 9th century until 1920s, The trend of Chokha in Georgians still continue to occur as they see it as their proud cultural heritage they inherit till this day...
. Prince Alexander of Oldenburg, founder of Gagra
Gagra
Gagra is a town in Abkhazia, Georgia’s breakaway republic, sprawling for 5 km on the northeast coast of the Black Sea, at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains...
, kept in his yard a few representatives from each of the peoples of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
, including the local blacks.
It is known that already in the 19th century, Abkhazians of African descent spoke only in Abkhazian and considered themselves Abkhaz people
Abkhaz people
The Abkhaz or Abkhazians are a Caucasian ethnic group, mainly living in Abkhazia, a disputed region on the Black Sea coast. A large Abkhazian diaspora population resides in Turkey, the origins of which lie in the emigration from the Caucasus in the late 19th century known as Muhajirism...
. Their total number is estimated by different observers in the range of "several families" to "several villages". They are not religiously homogeneous, either. Apparently in Abkhazia there are or have been in the recent past black Christians, black Muslims, and black Jews.
Abkhazians of African descent engaged in growing citrus, grapes, and corn, working in the coal mines of Tkvarchreli and enterprises of Sukhumi
Sukhumi
Sukhumi is the capital of Abkhazia, a disputed region on the Black Sea coast. The city suffered heavily during the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict in the early 1990s.-Naming:...
, working in knitting factories, etc. Like many Abkhazian people, Abkhazians of African descent today speak in Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
. Most today are of mixed race, as the Abkhazians of African descent have intermarried with other local ethnic groups. Many left Kodor settled in other parts of Abkhazia and in neighboring Georgia and Russia, as well as other nearby countries.
Abkhazians of African descent presence has also been noted among Abkhaz communities in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
.
In popular culture
- Abkhazians of African descent and their relationships with Abkhazians were featured in prose by Fazil IskanderFazil IskanderFazil Abdulovich Iskander is arguably the most famous Abkhaz writer, renowned in the former Soviet Union for his vivid descriptions of Caucasian life, mostly written in Russian...
.